Friday, December 8, 2017

Endless waves of bleached grey ash spread across the surface of Necromunda. Hundreds of kilometres of toxic desert separate each desperate settlement in this barren land.

Out of this brutal environment stalk the Lowthian Bells. Once an enforcer crew of house Escher under the name of the Neon Valkyries, fourty strong, they were sent to an ash wastes settlement to solve a couple of “issues” with the Scavvies disrupting the flow of toxins that grow under the radioactive clouds that surround the hive. But once out on their own a storm made it impossible for them to re-enter the hive proper. Thought dead by their house, and their turf divvied up between the Goliaths of the Jagged Aggressors and the Orlocks their name was soon forgotten.

It was two years before the storm subsided enough to have the Southern gates reopened. Usually a time of great jubilation in a hive sector as family’s are reunited or travelers return with tales and treasures. This time was different. Ten white haired and leather clad women strode through the gates that day ahead of the traders and dross from the wastes. None from outside the gates would talk of what these ten had done. What horrors they had inflicted. Or what they planned next.

Monday, July 10, 2017

I'm not a gamer. I love me some Blood Bowl, but 40k and the rest just end up freaking me out with the constant litany of rules and remembering things. Top it all off with remembering wounds for your 50 tanks. You're going to have a bad time. That's why my very good friend Monk has the ideal present for you. His kickstarter has already reached its goal, but you haven't secured yourself one yet. A simple device for keeping track of wounds! Genius. I present ... THE WOUND-WANG!

I've seen them in action, and not only do you get to say wang a lot, but they're incredibly useful.
Hopefully get to post some painting stuff soon, but the heat is a bugger for killing the motivation to paint.
Happy painting all!
Love Henry

Friday, June 9, 2017

Monday, November 7, 2016

Right. I'm putting down the first sister of silence! Amazingly fun models to paint, but I've made some mistakes that would simply be too hard to come back from. Using an old can of Testors to undercoat to start with! I may as well have used a trowel. Just destroyed a lot of details and edges that would have been useful to paint with. Seems a shame to chuck this model, but I'll stick it in some cleaning fluid over night and see what I'm left with and if it's salvageable.
But this is how it ended up.

Not too bad for my first concerted effort on a character.
Happy painting all! Next up is a full Custode in shining gold.

Monday, October 31, 2016

My love of learning NMM and struggle with NMM-Gold continues in week 2!

After picking up the burning of prospero kit at the weekend, I immediately assembled a sister of silence and started painting.

I have loved the thought of the sisters of silence since John Blanche illustrated them ages ago. And now they fall into my lap just as I'm learning a technique that will compliment them perfectly?! The fates have been kind.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

NMM (non-metallic metal) has always been a pain in the arse. Gold would look like wood, silver would look like blue wood. And if I spent too long on it, it would end up just looking white. Horribly frustrating and difficult. So to get back into the swing of blogging and painting again I am determined to get good at this technique.

Day 5: Steel, Gold and Silver.

This subject has hundreds of tutorials all over the internet, you can find reference for every type of metal and material on google, and facebook has pages dedicated to teaching it to you. So I don't think my views on it will help So here's a couple of things that I've found out from the first week of doing this. (I've not set myself a time limit for it, I'll just keep going until I can do it in my sleep)

1. Don't worry if it doesn't look like metal. Until the final highlight is down and dry it won't look like metal. Even when it's finished it won't take some pictures and pick it back up. Your tricking the eye into seeing something that isn't there. These are shades of grey and blue no reflection is happening. So stick to the reference and then come back to it.

2. Don't paint with anything other than a matte medium. This might be a personal preference but using a flat matte medium to mix my paints stops your eye being drawn to anything other than the reflections I am painting with.

3. Dont be precious about perfect lines. Razor sharp lines in reflected light may seem to be a good idea to aim for but I've had much more success with something more abstract. implying the armour or metal isn't a perfectly flat surface, but more of a hammered used material.

4. Don't practice on a full character. Grab some unused weapons or chunks of armour, spray 20 of them black and stick them on corks. The idea of painting a full character in this manner is daunting, and when you first set out you'll be improving so fast that by the time you finish it you'll want to start again.

Here are a few WIP pics and tests from the first 4 days.

It's a blast to be back! And for any who are interested I am still working hard at ILM.

Buddha Trained

2014

About Me

I spend the majority of my time colouring in. At work I make CG monsters and enviroments as a VFX and concept artist, at home I make physical monsters with tiny bits of plastic and sculpting putty. My dog takes up all the rest of my time.